Let Me Start: Boehner’s big blunder

House Speaker John Boehner speaking to the media Thursday on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Yuri Gripas/Reuters

Boehner’s Blunder: House Speaker John Boehner was forced to pull his much-heralded “Plan B” legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff when he didn’t have enough votes among his own Republican caucus. It’s a huge and embarrassing defeat for Boehner, who now has to find a way forward with President Obama that Democrats and a handful of Republicans will support. And that’s tricky business for the Speaker, who already has some trouble on his right flank.

Investors around the world don’t like what they saw from the House last night. And the big question, once again, is whether America’s political leaders can effectively tackle its economic problems as a nation, and not as a banana republic.

The National Rifle Association steps into the discussion about gun control laws in the wake of the Newtown massacre. The NRA rarely backs down from a fight, and, as the New York Times points out in an editorial, the gun industry profits when the NRA fights against sensible gun controls.

We’ll also be looking at the portrayal of torture in the new movie “Zero Dark Thirty”, about the killing of Osama bin Laden.